


Lost in the Forest

by pinkpallet



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Crushes, M/M, Palletshipping, Travelling together, one of the characters gets slightly injured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 15:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17368379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkpallet/pseuds/pinkpallet
Summary: Ash and Gary are travelling together and they lose their way in a forest. A secret santa gift for FeraNelia.





	Lost in the Forest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FeraNelia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeraNelia/gifts).



**Hey, so this is a gift for FeraNelia on Tumblr for the Palletshipping secret santa! I had lots of fun writing this! :D**

* * *

 

**Lost in the Forest**

“Ash, I think we have passed this tree before, haven’t we?” his travelling companion asked him loudly.

Ash Ketchum stood in the middle of a forest, with his Pikachu perched atop his shoulder, and stood staring determinedly at his fingernails feeling extremely embarrassed. _Twice_ , he had travelled through the Kanto region twice, that too on foot, exploring all sorts of different routes everywhere.  And yet he had managed to get them lost again, for the fourth time since they had started this journey.

He glanced up at his current travelling companion, and secret crush, and found that said crush was staring right back at him, looking somewhat annoyed. Ash quickly averted his gaze, feeling even more nervous and embarrassed then before.

“Ash, you didn’t answer my question from earlier? Have we passed this particular tree or not, because I sure as hell remember this mark that I drew on it,” Gary Oak spoke, pointing at the mark on the tree besides him.

“Uh, yeah, I think we have passed by it before as well Gary,” Ash finally answered him in a defeated tone.

“Were you checking the map?” Gary’s next question came immediately.

“Yes,” Ash answered.

“And the PokeNav?” Gary inquired further.

“Obviously,” Ash almost snapped at him, the tiredness and hunger from the journey throughout the day finally making him lose his patience.

“Then please explain to me how come we are lost yet again Ashy-Boy?” Gary asked sounding a little angry himself.

They were meant to reach Celadon city by nightfall, but now night was here and the city was still nowhere in sight.

“I don’t know, okay Gary! If you think you are better at following directions then you lead the way from tomorrow onwards!” Ash almost shouted at him.

“I wasn’t saying I am better at following directions,” Gary replied calmly, although he sounded slightly hurt, “But you have travelled through Kanto twice that’s why we both agreed that it would be best if you lead the way.”

“You have travelled through Kanto once too,” Ash reminded him.

“In a car, those routes are completely different and don’t intersect much with these routes. Plus, my cheerleaders knew the routes,” Gary told him.

“I had help too. My friends were the once who usually told me where to go,” Ash told him.

They stood staring at each other for a few seconds and then both of them burst out laughing.

“Looks like both of us had help,” Gary spoke with a chuckle, “In that case, I think we should just camp here tonight and start working on the maps and PokeNav together from tomorrow onwards.”

“Good idea!” Ash exclaimed, “Hey, but didn’t you travel through Johto on your own? How did you managed that?”

“It wasn’t as easy as you think Ashy Boy. I got lost a lot of times too,” Gary answered with a smile.

They started laughing again.

Ash still couldn’t believe that he was travelling with Gary of all people. It had happened quite unexpectedly actually. For a long time Ash had been thinking of challenging the Kanto gyms again. Mainly because he knew that most of those Kanto gym leaders must have become really strong by now so there was a new thrill and excitement in challenging them again.

As for Gary, he was sick of getting stuck in a lab for all day, and wanted to be a field researcher now. Ash didn’t understand much of his research material, except that it dealt with Pokemon evolution. Or more specifically, the evolution of ancient Pokemon, whom he and his researcher friends used to resurrect from fossils.

Oh, as for the crush part, it was something Ash had realized almost all of a sudden. On a brightly lit sunny afternoon, when he was having lunch with Gary in a restaurant in Vermilion city. Out of nowhere, Gary had broached the subject of crushes and girlfriends.

“So Ash, have you ever had a crush on anyone?” Gary had asked him with a curious expression on his face.

“Huh, you mean, have I ever liked anyone?” Ash asked just to clear the confusion.

“Yes, that’s what having a crush means,” Gary explained.

Ash vaguely remembered how he use to feel about Misty at one point of time, but he was quite determined not to tell that to Gary. He would tease Ash like anything if he found that one out! He also remembered Serena, but he wasn’t going to talk about that either.

“Uh, no nope,” Ash answered a bit too hurriedly.

“I have got a feeling you are lying,” Gary teased him anyway.

“Well, have you ever had a crush on anyone Gary?” Ash asked him in return.

“Yeah, and it is a strange feeling,” Gary answered, with a slight blush on his cheeks. Ash thought he looked real cute when he blushed.

“What do you mean it’s a strange feeling?” Ash asked him curiously.

“I mean, it makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever we think of that person. And we really start looking forward to talking to them and wanting to spend time with them. And we start caring a lot about them. It’s complicated,” Gary told him.

“Uh-huh,” Ash nodded his head in understanding. But inside his head a whirlpool of emotions and confusion was swirling. Because Gary’s words had slowly made him realize that he had lately been having these exact sort of feelings for one particular person, Gary himself. In fact, he’d had these kind of feelings for Gary ever since they’d been little kids, he couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to realize it. So long to figure it all out.

“Hello! Earth to Ash!” Gary exclaimed.

Ash was pulled out from his old memories by Gary’s sudden exclamation, and he realized that he was still standing in the dark forest and was just as cold and hungry as before.

“Pikapi!” Pikachu also exclaimed indignantly from Ash’s shoulder.

“Oh yeah, sorry there buddy, I zoned out for a little bit,” Ash said to his electric-type companion, “So, what should we do now Gary?” he asked the researcher.

“Camp over here of course. There’s a lot of space to set up our tents. But it’s really cold, so we will need wood to start a camp-fire. You search for some wood in that direction, and I’ll search over there,” Gary replied pointing behind his back.

“Okay!” Ash said, “Let’s get going Pikachu!”

The next twenty minutes passed with Ash and Pikachu silently collecting wood-sticks from the forest floor. Ash finally felt like they had collected enough of it and was just about to signal to Pikachu that they should return back to the camping site, when he saw a shadow moving out of the corner of his eyes. Almost instinctively Ash turned and saw a huge shape towering above him. It was an Ursaring .

“Ursaring!” the Pokemon roared loudly. In the glowing moonlight, he looking extremely angry and menacing.

“Pikachu!” Pikachu immediately came and stood before Ash in a defensive manner, ready to attack the Ursaring if it tried to attack them first.

There was an eerie silence for a few seconds during which the Ursaring and Pikachu stood glaring at each other, while Ash wondered what exactly he should do. Just as he had made up his mind to slowly approach the Ursaring and gently talk to him and get him to calm down, he heard thundering footsteps from behind him.

Ash turned and to his horror found Gary running in his direction at top speed, he looked extremely panicked for some reason. Ash was just about to ask him what had happened, when he glanced behind Gary and saw a huge horde of Ursaring chasing him.

“Run quickly Ashy boy! We need to get away from this place!” Gary yelled, as he grabbed Ash’s hand and the two of them started running as fast as their legs could carry them, with Ash glancing back once to make sure that Pikachu was following them, and sure enough the yellow mouse was right behind.

Just then a huge shape jumped in front of them. Ash realized with a jolt that it was the same Ursaring whom he and Pikachu had seen earlier.

“I think he is the leader of their group. That’s why he is always ahead of others,” Ash whispered in a low voice to Gary, “I wonder why they are after us though?”

“We must have entered their territory. And there might be baby Teddiursa around,” Gary told him.

The Ursaring roared loudly and soon enough his pack started roaring as well.

“They are on both sides. Which way should we go?” Ash asked feeling panicked.

“Well, he might be the leader, but he is still just one Ursaring compared to the entire pack behind us. So our best bait is to dodge him and run away,” Gary said and started running in the forward direction.

“Gary wait!” Ash exclaimed.

But it was too late. Gary had started running in the direction of the Ursaring, probably planning to dodge his attack and run ahead. But Ash realized almost immediately that whatever he had planned was not going to work. This Ursaring was too smart. He waited silently till Gary was close enough and just when he was near enough he raised his hand ready to strike him.

Ash moved forward instantly and tackled Gary out of the way. A wave of relief washed over him after getting Gary out of harm’s way, until it was replaced by a sharp, stinging wave of pain, and everything went black.

Ash slowly opened his eyes. Almost immediately he could feel the stinging pain from earlier return and he realized that it was coming from his right arm. He also realized that he was lying inside their tent and his arm was bandaged.

“Pikapi!” Pikachu exclaimed happily upon seeing that Ash was alright and ran out of the tent, most likely to inform Gary.

Sure enough, just a few seconds later, Gary returned in the tent, and smiled at Ash.

“Feeling better Ashy boy?” he asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Yeah,” Ash answered.

“Let me take a look at your hand,” he said and gently held Ash’s right hand in his as he examined the now bandaged wound, “Hmm, at least it’s not bleeding now. I think it will heal soon.”

Ash was suddenly too aware of the fact that his crush was sitting right next to him and holding his hand in his. Partly to distract himself from these thoughts and partly too know whatever had happened, he asked Gary, “Hey Gary, what happened over there?”

“Well, you got me out of the way, but the Ursaring hit you instead. And then Pikachu happened. He got so mad after seeing you get hurt that he shocked all those Ursaring away,” Gary told him, “And then I had to carry you back to the camp-site. Oh, and we are inside our tent right now.”

“I had figured out the tent thing, but wow Pikachu, you managed to chase all those Ursaring away by yourself? You have really gotten stronger, haven’t you?” Ash said to his starter proudly.

“Pika!” the electric type blushed a little upon receiving praises from both Ash and Gary.

Ash suddenly realized that Gary was staring at him, with a light blush forming on his cheeks.

“I just wanted to thank you, for saving me back there. You know you are really very brave Ashy boy, but also really dumb,” Gary said to him in an affectionate tone.

“You had me really worried for a few seconds. Whatever were you planning, running at an Ulsaring like that? And I had always thought that you were the more cautious one out of us,” Ash said to him.

“Yeah, sorry, that wasn’t very well-planned by me. Actually, I had been attacked by a group of Ursaring while travelling in Johto and I had used a similar strategy back then to get away from them. I thought it might work this time as well,” Gary told Ash in a slightly embarrassed tone, “But you saved me, so thanks again, he added.

“Of course I would save you, I really like you,” Ash spoke without thinking. It only struck him a moment too late what he’d just said.

“I like you too Ash,” Gary replied, blushing slightly, “I’ll go and make dinner for us now,” he added and hurried out of the tent.

Ash closed his eyes and sighed. Maybe, just maybe, one day he would have the courage to tell Gary how he really felt. He was looking forward to that day.

* * *

 

**Hope you enjoyed it! :)**

 


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